PTCL rolls out LTE upgrade, switches off CDMA system in major cities

State-owned telco Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has implemented a ‘major upgrade’ of its fixed-wireless TD-LTE network – marketed by the telco as CharJi 4G LTE – in Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar. As part of the development, however, its legacy ‘3G EVO’ service, which uses CDMA200 1xEV-DO Rev A technology, will no longer be available in those cities from 17 September 2018. EVO customers are able to upgrade to CharJi by trading in their old device and paying an additional PKR2,500 (USD20.2), users doing so will also receive one month of unlimited free downloads. As noted by TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, PTCL launched its CharJi LTE network in September 2014 on the 1900MHz band and announced in March this year that it was working to gradually replace the aging CDMA-based EVO system – which also uses 1900MHz band frequencies – with TD-LTE technology.